We have a brand new Robert Towne (the film's Academy Award winning screenwriter) autographed Blu-ray copy of Chinatown, courtesy of our friends at Dolby, that we are giving away at random to an AVS Forum Member! Interested parties should reply in this thread and detail their favorite moment (s) from this classic film.

A winner will be picked at random on April 13, 2012 from those that reply in this thread. The winner will be notified and the outcome posted in this thread on April 14, 2012. The disc will be forwarded to the winner via U.S. Mail on April 16, 2012.

Here's a little background:

Robert Towne won an Academy Award for his screenplay portraying Jack Nicholson as private eye Jake Gittes. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for one unforgettable night in Chinatown. The release comes to life like never before in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound, unlocking the full entertainment experience on Blu-ray Disc for this must-have movie buff classic.

My favorite part(s) of Chinatown are the background bits, hubbub, and stereotypical sights/sounds/smells (yes I'm implying good cinematography has smells) that lend a kind of surreal verisimilitude to the scenes.

The first time I watched this (on a 13" TV/VCR combo) in college was with three of my friends who had never seen it either. When the Jake almost drowns in a very intense scene that involves what seemed like 10 minutes of water sounds and no dialog, one of the guys breaks the tension at the end scene with a "son of a b.....". Two beats later, we are surprised to hear Jake say the same thing, with same delivery.

I liked the statement by Jake " I wouldn't extort a nickel from my worst enemy, that's where I draw the line"
The other statement I felt was note worthy is by Catherine after repeated slaps from Jake saying sister then daughter she finally says " "She's my sister and my daughter "
Both were defining moments in each character.

My favorite film. Many great lines, but I love the eye theme. As mentioned above, there's the flaw in the iris, but also, Mrs. Murray gets dirt in her eye in the escape from the nursing home, Hollis's broken glasses in the pool, Jake's broken glasses after the beating in the orange grove and, of course, the final shot through the flawed eye.

So many great and memorable scenes and lines, but still the top choice ultimately HAS to be the one that ultimately punches you in the stomach, knocks the wind out of you, and ultimately leaving you gasping for air...

"the startling and despairing ending scene, the only scene in the film that actually takes place in Chinatown, all the characters converge including the unsuspecting police (on Cross' payroll: "He owns the police").

The sequence opens in the circumscribed area beyond true police and governmental control with passing views of neon-lighted Chinese restaurants and colorful lanterns, accompanied by discordant, blaring piano chords and a snare drum. Gittes notices that his operatives Walsh and Duffy have already been handcuffed. He appears willing to escape from Cross and holds out his hand to be cuffed by Escobar's partner, Loach, "for withholding evidence, extortion, accessory after the fact." But Gittes' protests are ignored when he argues, powerlessly, that Cross, Evelyn's incestuous father, is "the bird you're after...He's crazy, Lou. He killed Mulwray because of the water thing...Lou, you don't know what's going on here, I'm tellin' ya."

During Evelyn's getaway with Curly and the butler and maid in their native town, Cross finally catches up with his two daughters. He stumbles when guiltlessly identifying himself to the girl as her grandfather. Evelyn pushes her evil father away and attempts to get her depraved father away from the girl. Cross pleads with her to release the young girl - his offspring:

Cross: Evelyn, pleeease, pleeease be reasonable...How many years have I got? She's mine too?
Evelyn: She's never going to know that.

With that, Evelyn pulls out a small pistol and threatens her father. Gittes suggests letting the police handle everything, but she replies with futility: "He owns the police." Cross tries to reason with her and accuses her of being neurotic and paranoid: "Evelyn, you're a disturbed woman, you cannot hope to provide...You'll have to kill me first." And with that, she wounds her father in the arm in full view of everyone, and then attempts to escape by car with Katherine.

In the gripping final scene, Escobar fires his pistol twice into the air as a warning, and then once at the car's tires. Loach, still handcuffed to Gittes, takes three more shots at the escaping car as it recedes out of view - and one of his shots is fatal. Suddenly the car slows to a stop in the far distance. The blaring horn of the car signals a death for Jake. [The horn also sounded when Evelyn's head fell forward onto the car's wheel outside the house where Katherine was being kept.] There are Katherine's screams, as the awful, horrible scene is revealed - slumped over the wheel of her car is Evelyn, shot through the head from behind. Gittes is the first to get to the car - he opens the driver's door and she flops to the side. Her face is horribly blown apart through her flawed eye - she has literally been destroyed by her father. Escobar has the cuffs removed from Gittes' arms when he orders: "Turn them all loose." Cross, lamenting "Lord, Oh Lord," clumsily shields and covers the eyes of an hysterical Katherine - telling her "Don't look, don't look" - to prevent her from comprehending the enormous tragedy. The domineering, capitalistic water tycoon and controlling father/grandfather comforts her and ends up taking her away.

Powerless to prevent the inevitable tragedy that he has exposed, Jake is stunned, shocked, and numb -- and cannot help but recognize (and see) the part he played in it. He is filmed in stark profile from the left, accentuating the stitches on his wounded nose. With Jake's last words, he mumbles what he told Evelyn he used to do in Chinatown and has again succeeded in doing: "As little as possible." His meddling into the mystery, and his emotional involvement in this case has led to a chaotic finale, where he is left to repeat past history in the dark streets of Chinatown.

The devastated Gittes is ordered by Escobar to get the hell out of there and go home as a "favor":

What's that? What's that? You want to do your partner a big favor? (To his men) Take him home. Take him home! Just get him the hell out of here. (To Jake) Go home, Jake. (Whispering) I'm doing you a favor.

Gittes' associate Walsh also tells the detective to lay the inexplicable blame on the foreign area and repress the nightmarish tragedy - as he is led away, in a haunting closing line:

Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown!

Gittes is cautioned to detach himself emotionally from the case - something that he will find impossible to do. [In the sequel, The Two Jakes (1990), an older Jake is preoccupied by his haunted memories of tragic victim Evelyn and the unanswered question of the fate of her daughter Katherine. After learning Katherine's identity during another case in the conclusion of the sequel, he tells/warns her with these words as the film ends: "It [the past] never goes away."]

Sirens sound as Escobar orders the clearing of curious spectators that are gathering on the street:

All right. Come on, clear the area. On the sidewalk. On the sidewalk, get off the street."

There were at least two people who posted before you that said they were looking forward to seeing the movie for the first time and you just gave away the ending without even a spoiler alert. Seriously, you might think of deleting all the detail and just saying that you liked the ending.